At 7:30 p.m. on a late summer Thursday, Deloris Hogan was hunched over her kitchen counter cutting up freshly harvested cucumbers, strawberries and red bell peppers from her vegetable garden for six young children at her home in New Rochelle. Her husband, Patrick, standing a few feet away, scraped the cheese off four slices of pizza to accommodate a couple of picky eaters.

Building on the work of other states, we partnered with the business communities in Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania and their early education partners to understand just how much breakdowns in childcare cost each state. In this study we looked at the causes of childcare challenges as well as motivations behind why parents select various childcare providers. Knowing many employers want to facilitate more access to childcare but do not know where to begin, we sought to learn what types of childcare benefits working parents desire most from employers.

Nancy Lee Sánchez, Executive Director of the Kaplan Educational Foundation, recently examined the important purpose community colleges serve in the future of workforce development. A key point made is “community colleges are defined differently by those who enroll in them”, in other words, people view community colleges as a pathway towards different goals.

A two-generation approach is needed to ensure today’s workforce can make productive contributions now, while tomorrow’s workforce is prepared and positioned to take on what the future holds. America’s need for high-quality, affordable childcare is so great, it will take efforts by all of us to make the system work. Child Care Aware® of America discusses the grassroots effort of CCR&Rs.

In today’s labor market, long-term talent strategies are often over-shadowed by the critical short-term needs of today and tomorrow. While immediate hiring needs are often the most pressing issues for HR departments, strategies like TPM can help businesses solve these common pain points—such as unfilled job openings, exorbitant training and onboarding costs, and attrition—and talent gaps collaboratively.

As a business leader, you’ve noticed it is becoming more and more difficult to hire and retain qualified workers. You’ve likely even considered the longer-term scenarios – will it be even more challenging to secure a reliable and productive workforce 5 or 10 or even 20 years from now?